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Fencer Intel
low 3.7

GHSA-442j-39wm-28r2 json

Handlebars.js has a Property Access Validation Bypass in container.lookup

published 7mo ago modified 2mo ago

cvss
3.7
version 3.1, GitHub
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
—
no score, EPSS covers CVEs only
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

## Summary

In `lib/handlebars/runtime.js`, the `container.lookup()` function uses `container.lookupProperty()` as a gate check to enforce prototype-access controls, but then discards the validated result and performs a second, unguarded property access (`depths[i][name]`). This Time-of-Check Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) pattern means the security check and the actual read are decoupled, and the raw access bypasses any sanitization that `lookupProperty` may perform.

Only relevant when the **compat** compile option is enabled (`{compat: true}`), which activates `depthedLookup` in `lib/handlebars/compiler/javascript-compiler.js`.

## Description

The vulnerable code in `lib/handlebars/runtime.js` (lines 137–144):

```javascript lookup: function (depths, name) { const len = depths.length; for (let i = 0; i < len; i++) { let result = depths[i] && container.lookupProperty(depths[i], name); if (result != null) { return depths[i][name]; // BUG: should be `return result;` } } }, ```

`container.lookupProperty()` (lines 119–136) enforces `hasOwnProperty` checks and `resultIsAllowed()` prototype-access controls. However, `container.lookup()` only uses `lookupProperty` as a boolean gate — if the gate passes (`result != null`), it then performs an independent, raw `depths[i][name]` access that circumvents any transformation or wrapped value that `lookupProperty` may have returned.

## Workarounds

- Avoid enabling `{ compat: true }` when rendering templates that include untrusted data. - Ensure context data objects are plain JSON (no Proxies, no getter-based accessor properties).

Patch / fix

Is GHSA-442j-39wm-28r2 in your dependencies? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

Check with Fencer

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
GitHub 3.1 3.7 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
npm handlebars
>=4.0.0, <4.7.9
4.7.9

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-367 Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

The maintainers of handlebars-lang/handlebars.js published their own advisory on GitHub. Reviewed sources take precedence over it.